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Our managing partner and founder, Jerry Mills, is up for the Top Small Business Influencer in Americaaward. Never heard of it? Neither had I until I learned Jerry was nominated.

Well, when I start to think about this a little further, it occurs to me how much our firm does influence small business in America in a very positive way.

As an example, one of my clients recently accepted an offer to sell his business. He is very happy with the situation, but just a year ago, this wasn’t very likely to happen. The company was losing a substantial amount of money and cash flow was negative every month. As a result, the business was digging further and further into the line of credit. Maxing out the line and getting into difficult cash flow issues was directly on the horizon.

Over a year later now, the company has posted a substantial YTD profit, the line of credit has been completely paid off and there is a substantial amount of cash on the balance sheet. All of this was very attractive to the buyer and will net my client the value he hoped to obtain on the sale.

How was this achieved? Four areas were targeted. First, instead of simply charging one blended average rate for their services, we analyzed the rates and costs of various levels of resources and determined the market would accept higher rates especially for higherr level resources. Through this process we substantially increased gross margins. Second, we began forecasting weekly cash flow and tracking performance against the forecast every week. By using this tool to manage cash, we began to make better decisions and were able to significantly increase cash flow. Third, we completed and implemented a budget for 2011. Finally, in conjunction with the budget we implemented purchasing and travel and entertainment policies to help control spending.

This is just one example of many from our firm, but it is a feeling of accomplishment to help small businesses in this way and it is meaningful. So, should Jerry Mills be considered for the Top Influencer of Small Businesses in America? I think so.

B2B CFO®

NOTICE: B2B CFO Partners, LLC, dba B2B CFO is an Arizona limited liability company that provides advisory and consulting services. B2B CFO® partners are independent contractors and are not officers, employees or agents of, or partners or joint ventures with, the companies they serve, nor are they independent CPAs.